1. HELPING CHEMISTS FIND JOBS IN A TOUGH MARKET. 2. TOWARDS A QUANTITATIVE UNDERSTANDING OF THE QUALITY OF THE CHEMISTRY JOB MARKET.

Wednesday, December 13, 2017

The 2017-2018 new prof open thread

From the inbox, a request for an open thread on new PI startups, etc. I hereby announce this open thread. Enjoy.

From 2016, I wanted to note this request on Twitter from Julia Kalow on good literature to read in preparation for running a new laboratory that generated a lot of good responses, including this small list of "new assistant prof lit":

The Thermo Fisher basic Cimarec hotplate stirrer are pretty economical, but the dial construction is rather poor. My undergrad found out that when the dial went past the stop point with a bit of an effort (athlete with strong arms), it would heat at full power. So use with caution. I also have a love/hate relationship with gloveboxes from Inert Technology.

Following up on the thread started by Eigen on December 11, 2017 at 4:26 PM about starting a research program in PUIs. I was wondering if candidates who got a job offer as TT-Assit Prof, with a fair amount of research money to start, correlated with the publication productivity during graduate school, and if such candidates have completed a Post-Doc ? Feel free to talk about your own experience. Cheers !

At my top-50-but-not-top-20 SLAC, I'm looking at one paper every 2-3 years (student co-authors, obviously) and continued _effort_ toward external funding. Your senior colleagues, both by looking at their CVs and just asking them, should be clear about institutional expectations for your productivity. Start up was about a year's salary.

My best student here can do in one semester what I used to be able to do in 2-3 weeks as a postdoc. It takes far more work on your end than you'd initially have expected to ensure that you're giving them manageable and meaningful portions of a productive project.

Thanks for your reply, the semester productivity of good undergrads versus Postdoc is interesting.In my case, I am excited by the offer as I love teaching and working with undergrads, which is the focus of that PUI. The start up is around 5000 USD to 6000 USD but all instruments are shared. The expectation is to publish one paper every three years to get tenure (seven years from day 1). The university offers support for teaching but also grant applications.Is anyone here developed a research strategy with small start up funds ?

In addition to the Facebook group, there's a "New PI Slack" group that I've found quite useful. It's open to all PI-status, pre-tenure academics and has been a great (private) resource to get example grants, feedback, budgets, etc.

https://newpislack.wordpress.com

It's more biomedical than chemistry at the moment, but the chemistry population is slowly building, and I'd like to get a channel started for early career chemists.

Also worth mentioning the "New Faculty Workshops" this summer from ACS: